


Stay

by TheCarmineWanker



Category: Winx Club
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:07:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28057353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCarmineWanker/pseuds/TheCarmineWanker
Summary: AU in which Marion died in the fight against the witches, Domino can't be magically restored, and the revival of Oritel goes differently.
Relationships: Oritel/Stella (Winx Club)
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

It all started one morning when Faragonda called Stella to her office. She thought she was in trouble but, when she got there, she discovered that she was quite mistaken. Faragonda had called her there to tell her that, somehow, she had recently gotten information that, apparently, after years of searching, Hagen had finally managed to track down Oritel’s sword and that he and Marion might actually still be alive, which is why he’d been searching. Faragonda had decided to tell Stella alone both because she didn’t want to get Bloom’s hopes up but also because, even with the witches permanently dead and gone, Obsidian was still a world of darkness and Faragonda felt that, as the fairy of the sun and the moon, soon to be guardian fairy of Solaria, Stella was the most qualified to go there.

Luckily for her, her opportunity to go on the mission came only two days later, when the Winx had made plans to meet up with the guys. That morning, she very conveniently caught a cold and couldn’t possibly go out while she was sick like that (but not so sick that anyone should stay behind with her, of course). Once they were gone, her convenient head cold disappeared and she puled out her ring, opening a portal to Obsidian.

Her first impression was that it was very dark, rather cold, and that there was a rather unpleasant odor in the air that seemed somewhat familiar but she couldn’t quite identify what it was. As she used her staff to light up her surroundings, she quickly recognized the one danger of being there that she hadn’t yet considered: she would have to get in and get out before she ran out of magic by powering her staff. She pulled out the compass that Hagen had recently made that finally showed him the true location of the sword, which he verified with math and science stuff that Stella didn’t understand, even though she did her best to pretend to.

She followed it by the light of her staff into a large, open cave made entirely of obsidian. Something about being in a cave made entirely of smooth, crystal-like black stone with no stalagmites, stalagtites, or any vegetation whatsoever felt very wrong to her. As she continued to walk across the cave, she began to see a statue on the other side that stood out because, unlike the vast quantities of obsidian surrounding her, this statue was diamond that glistened in the sunlight she carried. Shortly after the statue came into view clearly enough for her to identify it, she saw the sword with its blade embedded in a short pillar of obsidian and broke into a run.

When she reached the sword and the statue, her heart sank. The statue was clearly King Oritel, petrified, but Queen Marion was nowhere to be found. Sighing, she pulled out her fairy dust and sprinkled some over the statue. Even if the queen was gone, she could still try to save the king who was right there. To her surprise, it actually worked. In an instant, hard, glassy stone melted away and was replaced by human flesh. Unfortunately, he was either unconscious or dead, but, either way, he couldn’t stand and started to fall as soon as his legs were restored. Stella caught him, though, and gently laid him on the ground, his head resting on her lap.

She wasn’t sure what to do next. Even if he was alive and not dead, he might not wake up for hours, or days. She always could just open another portal and bring him back to Alfea or something but she would still have to carry him and she felt like she would have to get the sword, too. She easily spent 20 minutes considering what to do until, before she could make up her mind and do anything, his eyes began to open. When they did, the way he looked at her absolutely killed her. It was as if he saw her as an angel and, if she had been able to see what she looked like with the ring of sunlight she carried on her staff lighting up the dark cave around them and shining on her hair, almost like a halo, then she would have understood why that truly was how he saw her.

“Um, hi.” She found herself blushing.

“Who are you?” His voice was hoarse with years of disuse but his tone was soft.

“I’m a friend of your daughter’s, Faragonda sent me to get you since Hagen found your location by tracking your sword or something, which, by the way, is stuck in that rock over there.” She gestured to the sword, trying to ignore how he was watching her, absolutely mesmerized.

“You know Daphne?”

“Oh, no, I was talking about Bloom-” She just realized both that he had no way of knowing how long it had been, meaning that he probably thought Bloom was still a baby, and that Bloom most likely would have been given a different name by her birth parents. His face twisted in confusion.

“Bloom? I have two daughters and neither of them have that name.” Stella took a deep breath.

“Well, here’s the thing. 20 years ago or so, when the witches attacked Domino, Daphne managed to send her little sister to Earth where she was found and raised by her adoptive parents, Mike and Vanessa, who named her Bloom.”

“What?” He sat up fast, then winced in pain from disturbing the cut on his side. She grimaced.

“Yeah, we’re about to graduate from Alfea. But, hey, at least you’ll get to be there for that.” She tried to give him a reassuring smile. “Um . . . so, anyway, where’s the queen? I don’t see her.” His face expression grew grave.

“She died.” Stella had figured that was the case when she had noticed the queen’s absence, but she still felt bad.

“I’m sorry, that must be really hard for you.”

“Thank you.” For a minute, they sat there in thick silence before Stella broke it.

“So . . . you’re injured and everything so we really should focus on getting back to Alfea. Do you need to get that sword first?” He nodded, then, with some effort, got to his feet, walked over, and pulled the sword from the stone.

“Wow, if I’d known it was that easy, I would’ve done it myself.” He shook his head.

“You couldn’t. Hagen made it so only I and my descendants can use it.”

“Interesting . . .” She grabbed his free hand.

“Wha-” In seconds, she extinguished her light and opened a portal back to Alfea, dragging him through it behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

Bloom’s reaction when she got back from the girls’ evening with the guys and learned that Stella had faked being sick to go drag her birth father back from the dead but that her birth mom was still dead was interesting, to say the least. She was happy beyond words that he was back but she was also mad that she hadn’t been allowed to be there to bring back her own father but she was also conflicted about the news that Marion was dead, since, even though she had been assuming that, now that Oritel was back, it felt different. Then, after all of that, there was then also Bloom getting to meet her birth father for the first time and the crazy conversation that went with it. He learned that his eldest daughter was a disembodied spirit and she learned that, not only was her mother dead, but Domino was permanently destroyed. Well, that wasn’t entirely true since Bloom could still use her dragon flame to slowly thaw the planet and then completely rebuild the kingdom from scratch.

That, then, left Oritel in the rather awful situation of having absolutely nothing and no home to go back to. He was only staying at Alfea temporarily so that Ofelia could tend to his wounds but, even if that wasn’t the case, the school year was ending in only a couple weeks. Bloom had suggested that he go to stay with her, Mike, and Vanessa but the others pointed out that coming back from being petrified for 20 years like that was more than enough of a transition already and the last thing he needed was to have to also adapt to a strange land where magic doesn’t exist.

Begrudgingly, Bloom agreed, seeing the validity of that argument. Instead, Stella had offered that, with permission from her dad, he could stay on Solaria, since she was the one who brought him back and, that way, he could stay in a much more familiar environment with at least one friendly face. Also, when Oritel was ready for it, she could always open up a portal so he could go meet Mike and Vanessa and all that. After a phone call, she had permission and it was official since, apparently, he had been friends with her father.

. . . 

One thing that Stella immediately noticed about having Oritel as a house guest was that he very much kept to himself. In fact, she often thought of him as a dashing spectre that haunted that one guest room on the third floor. Somehow, she got the impression that he hadn’t been like this until he got petrified and un-petrified. Something about mourning the loss of his wife, his kingdom, and, in a way, his eldest daughter, as well as just learning that he missed his other daughter’s entire childhood, made it so that he wasn’t really interested in having conversation any more than was necessary. To some extent, Stella was able to understand how and why he had become a complete shut-in but, at the same time, she felt like it wasn’t healthy. After a few weeks, she finally caved and knocked on his door.

“Stella? What is it?” He looked like hell, like he hadn’t slept in a month and was well on the way to malnutrition, and his voice sounded as bad as it had when he first woke up in Obsidian.

“Well, I know you’ve been . . . having some ‘you’ time or whatever but I was bored and I wanted to know if you’d like to play chess or something? We don’t even have to talk, if you don’t want to, although I am concerned that you’re going to lose your voice permanently at this rate.” To her surprise and utter delight, he actually smiled. 

“Alright.”

For practically the first time since he’d arrived on Solaria, he left that particular guest room on the third floor and followed her to a parlor where a marble chess set was set up on a small wooden table.

“Black or white?”

“Black.”

She thought it was interesting that that was his choice - most people she’d played with wanted to go first. After thinking for a moment, she moved her pawn two spaces. He responded by copying her move so his pawn was directly in front of hers.

“So, do you feel like exercising your vocal cords so they don’t like shrivel up and die from you never using them?” He chuckled.

“If you can convince me that it’s worth the effort to stave off muteness.”

“Well, for one thing, you just got to meet Bloom and you can’t exactly build a relationship with her if you’re mute. And like how else are you supposed to tell people stuff, aside from sign language, I guess.” She moved her bishop. “That’s another one - you’d have to learn another language, basically. You couldn’t yell so if you’re in pain or really angry or something you would have to just suffer in silence or gesture really aggressively or something, too. And, most importantly, you couldn’t say ‘I love you’ or anything like that.” He nodded thoughtfully.

“Those are all good points. You win.” She smiled, victorious.

“Okay but which point was the best one?”

“You’re right that I am trying to form a relationship with my daughter right now and that I need my voice for that and being able to tell people I love them is important for that and in general.”

“What’s it like, getting to know Bloom and all that?” She moved a pawn. He sighed.

“Frustrating. I feel like I don’t have any right to because I was supposed to be her father but I’ve missed her entire life so far. I can’t help but be jealous of Mike and Vanessa because that was supposed to be Marion and I but, instead, I got petrified and missed almost two decades, my wife is dead, and my daughter was raised by other people.” When he moved his bishop, he put it down with enough force that, momentarily, it made Stella wonder if he’d cracked the piece until he removed his hand and she saw that it was fine.

“I hope you realize that everything you’re feeling, that you just said, is like completely reasonable. With everything you’ve been through, of _course_ you’re going to feel awkward about trying to get Bloom back in your life and of _course_ you’re going to feel weird about Mike and Vanessa because you’re right - it was supposed to be you, not them.” She moved a pawn. “You’ve been through hell, and that’s totally valid. Right now, you don’t need to be acting like you haven’t, you just need to give it some time work on figuring it out.”

“I . . . hadn’t thought of it like that. The rest of the Magic Dimension had the past two decades to mourn Marion and move on, so I feel like I should be over it by now as well, even though it’s only been a month for me.”

“Oh my gosh, no! Even if it was literally like 20 years ago, you only lost your wife about a month ago on your schedule, like you can’t just move on from something like that so quickly. Just take all the time you need - it could be six months or six years or whatever.” A small smile formed on his face as he moved a pawn diagonally.

“Thank you, Stella, I needed to hear that.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, and by the way, I’ll try to not pester you too much but you can expect me showing up at your room again in the future. I don’t think it’s healthy to stay locked up like that and I think how absolutely terrible you look right now is proof of that.”

“What do you mean I look terrible?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, you look like you haven’t slept since you woke up on my lap that one time, for one thing.”

Realizing what she’d just said, she blushed, matching him. It was times like these that she was reminded that she was an adult now, not a teenager, talking to an adult man and that some things came out with unintended connotations. She moved a pawn, putting him in check. He moved his king accordingly.

“In a way, you’re right, I haven’t slept since you revived me. Every time I close my eyes, I see my home and my people burning and my wife dying, over and over again. I’m lucky if I get four hours of sleep.”

“That’s horrible! Is there anything I can do to help?” He shook his head.

“I don’t think so.”

“You know . . .”

“What?” She shook her head.

“Never mind.” She’d had an idea but it would be overstepping way too much and she couldn’t suggest it. She moved her bishop.

“What was it? If there’s anything you think could help, I want to know.” Stella sighed.

“Fine. I was just thinking about what I just said a minute ago and was wondering if it might help to have me there when you go to sleep.” He was starting to give her a weird look, just as she’d expected. “Not for anything weird! It’s just that, like you said, the last time you actually slept was on my lap and I know it’s common for kids to go sleep with their parents when they have nightmares and stuff like that. Physical contact, or even just being in the same room as someone else, can really help because it like tricks your brain into thinking you’re more safe or whatever.”

“I see what you mean. I just question how . . . appropriate that would be and if your father would ever approve of such a thing.” He moved a rook.

“One, I’m an adult and two, he wouldn’t have to know.” Oritel raised an eyebrow at that and she just rolled her eyes. “But seriously, you’re probably in sleep psychosis or something right now, like you being able to sleep is definitely a priority and if my dad has a problem, he can just suck it.” She moved her king.

“ . . . Alright. I would argue but you’re right and I’m actually too tired to. Should I expect you this evening?”

“Yeah, I’ll go up at 11.”

“I’ll be waiting.”


	3. Chapter 3

As promised, she lightly knocked on his door one minute past 11. He opened the door and let her in with a somewhat awkward smile.

“So, what were you thinking?” She went over and sat down on the bed and then patted the spot next to her. Hesitantly, he took a seat next to her.

“Ugh, here.” She grabbed him and rearranged a bit until he was lying on his back with his head in her lap. She smiled as she started playing with his hair. “There, how’s that?”

“Weird, but good.” Her smile widened as his eyes fluttered shut and he relaxed into her touch.

“Good.”

. . .

Once he had fallen asleep, she had extracted herself and returned to her room. She didn’t know if he had stayed asleep after she left but she was willing to consider the previous night a success or, at least, progress. After breakfast, she went to check on him and see if it really had been a success.

“So? How did it go?” He grinned at her.

“I didn’t wake up until nine.” She couldn’t stop the squeal that came out of her throat.

“That’s wonderful! This is going to have to become a regular thing, right?” His face fell into an expression of nervousness and concern.

“I don’t want to impose . . .”

“You’re not. See you tonight!” She turned on her heel and waved over her shoulder, leaving before he could argue.

. . .

That became their routine - Stella would get ready for bed in her room like normal and then, at 11, sneak upstairs and stay with Oritel until he fell asleep, at which point she would sneak back down to her room. She was happy with how well this worked and how he no longer looked half dead from sleep deprivation. It had also brought them closer in some ways - she had become one of the only people he talked to and a trusted confidant while he was the same for her.

It was, in part, thanks to their arrangement that, six months later, when Bloom wanted him to come to Earth for her 20th birthday, he felt that he was ready to go. Everyone involved was pleasantly surprised by how well he got along with Mike and Vanessa. By then, the jealousy had subsided and was replaced by immense gratitude for them raising his daughter when he couldn’t.

Even still, he stuck close to Stella, noticeably so, because she was, after all, the person he was most comfortable around there. Brandon, who was also there, didn’t particularly appreciate how close his girlfriend seemed to him. At one point, he pulled her aside to address this.

“So . . . what’s going on between you two?” She cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean.”

“You and Oritel, you seem really close.”

“Uh, yeah, of course we are, I’m the reason he isn’t still a lump of glass or whatever, remember? And I was apparently the only one who could be bothered to reach out once he started staying with us because, just by encouraging him to stop being a hermit, I ended up becoming like the only person he talks to.”

“That’s what I mean - I’m concerned about that.”

“Wait, are you saying you’re _jealous_ because I’m helping my friend’s _widowed father_ work through some stuff? I didn’t think it was normal to get jealous of people twice your age just because your girlfriend is helping them out with stuff.” She thought he’d have the decency to look abashed but, instead, he got mad.

“Yeah, well normally people don’t have to worry about their girlfriend and someone twice their age giving each other bedroom eyes and that girlfriend spending more time with that guy than her actual boyfriend!”

“What is wrong with you? If you’re going to get upset about something like this then you can just go, I don’t have to deal with this.” Ignoring his protests, she turned on her heel and marched back to the house where Musa was on the porch, getting some air.

“What’s up, Stella?” She rolled her eyes.

“Brandon’s being dumb and I think I just broke up with him.”

“Wait what?” Stella nodded. “Why?”

“Like I said, he was being dumb, like ‘getting jealous of Bloom’s dad’ dumb. He said something about how I spend more time with Oritel than him and I’m just like yeah, duh, it’s called living in the same place.” She huffed, crossing her arms. “I told him I don’t have to deal with his crap and that if he was going to get all upset about something like that, then he could just leave.”

“That’s crazy - good for you.” Stella smiled.

“Thanks, now if only you could discover your own self worth and ditch the jerk, we’d be on the same page.” Musa laughed.

“Fair point.” As they went back inside, Stella found that she was surprisingly unbothered by her fight with Brandon and felt quite good, actually.


	4. Chapter 4

A few months later, Stella had, for the first time, fallen asleep in Oritel’s bed. Even though she’d been sitting up with his head on her lap when she fell asleep, she woke up at some ungodly hour of the morning to find herself in a tangle of limbs and sheets. Blushing, she started to try and untangle herself so she could sneak back into her room. However, apparently she woke him up because, as she was starting to get up, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

“Stay.” The way he kind of mumbled it made it very clear that he was half asleep but that didn’t matter to her. With a soft smile on her face and her heart beating just a little bit faster, she settled back in and went back to sleep.

The next time she woke up, the sun was fully up. This time, she was the one who was woken up by Oritel’s movement or, more specifically, his hand trailing across her half exposed waist in his failed attempt to extract himself without waking her. She stretched, yawning, causing him to retract his hand immediately, as though he was burned.

“Morning.” She had a dopey smile on her sleepy face.

“Good morning.” He returned her smile. “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you here?”

“You asked me to stay.” He looked positively shocked by that.

“When?”

“I woke up at like three in the morning or something, after I fell asleep by accident, and, when I went to go, you grabbed my wrist and asked me to stay, so I did.”

“I . . . don’t remember that.” His face blushed scarlet and he averted his eyes, focusing on the window. “I’m so sorry about that, if I had been awake enough I never would have done anything like that.” She chuckled.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind.” His eyes snapped up to meet hers, cautious and curious.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, in some way, you needed me and I was there so I was just glad to help. And, I mean, you’re not horrible bed company, like you don’t snore or anything.” He laughed.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Just then, something flickered in her brain and it finally occurred to her that she was a bisexual woman who just slept with a rather attractive heterosexual man, albeit in a very literal sense. And, then, just like that, her brain was flooded with images and ideas about how it would have been if them sleeping together had been less literal. Her whole face turned bright red and she hid it with the sheet.

“Stella? What’s wrong?” She didn’t answer, just shook her head instead, not moving the sheet. “Come on, you can tell me.” Once more, she didn’t answer, but she was starting to waver. “Please?”

“Ugh okay fine. Basically, my brain saw this situation and then decided all on its own to spam me with ideas about having sex with you.” She started to get up, refusing to look at him. “So, yeah, I’ll just go now and we can pretend I never said that.”

“Wait.” Just like the night before, he captured her wrist and stopped her from leaving. “Intrusive thoughts are normal and nothing to be ashamed of. Don’t leave if it’s just because of that.” She nibbled her lip.

“You realize that’s the second time in the past like 6 hours that you’ve told me to stay like that?” She wasn’t quite sure where that came from or why she said it.

“If you want to leave, leave. I’m just saying that you don’t have to if you don’t want to but, by all means, go right ahead if that’s what you want.” She could see that she’d managed to irritate him.

“I’m sorry. You’re being nice and I’m . . . not.” His face softened.

“No, Stella , you’re fine, you’re just trying to adapt to an awkward situation that I put you in.”

“So we’re good?” He smiled.

“Yeah.”

“. . . See you at eleven?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

. . .

When she got back to her room, Stella started to question everything. She had never actually thought about doing stuff like that with him before, though now she could see that it was her relationship with Brandon that kept her from exploring such thoughts. But, now, she didn’t have that to hide behind and all she could think of was the way he grabbed her wrist and told her to stay, what it felt like to wake up wrapped up in him, and how, even with all the awkwardness, he had agreed that she should go back that night. Not to mention that she was certain that she was the first person to spend the night with him like that since he was last with Marion, 20 years prior. It felt weird to be filling in that space, kind of, but, in some ways, it felt really good. The fact that he hadn’t said anything about it clearly showed how he was starting to move on and she was really proud of him. She knew he wasn’t over her death and probably never would be and that he still had a lot to work through, but this marked significant progress - and Stella deserved credit for the significant role she played in getting him there.

She ended up spending far more time than could be considered reasonable thinking about that night, daydreaming, and planning ahead. In the end, she decided to do what she normally did, but more deliberately and with a couple tweaks - light, natural makeup, perfectly neat hair, and then an oversized shirt and knee high socks. She honestly wasn’t sure if he’d even notice but she just knew that, that night, she wanted to feel confident that she was putting her best foot forward.

That night, the second the clock hit 11:00, she was tapping at his chamber door. She had spent the past half hour checking the clock every few minutes, trying and failing to focus on a fashion magazine to keep her distracted. She still didn’t quite know what had come over her or why, after a little less than a year of their arrangement for her to help him sleep it was only now occurring to her to think about him in a different light. Sure, he was Bloom’s dad, but he was also a single, straight man who, quite frankly, she thought was hot. The age difference didn’t bother her either, rather, the more she thought about it, she actually kind of liked it.

For the first time ever, she had butterflies in her stomach when he opened the door. She gave him a nervous smile as she entered. Like usual, she made her way straight to the bed. As she situated herself, she noticed the way he kept looking at her and her pulse quickened.

“You did something different.” She nodded as he settled next to her, with his head on her lap like normal.

“Yeah, I still have some of my makeup on because I didn’t feel like taking it off.”

“Mmm, that’s probably it. Although, wait a second.” She felt her soul leave her body when he reached up, took her face in his hands and pulled it towards his. “This looks fresh, like you just put it on. And you’ve never forgotten to take off your makeup before.” He released her face but she only pulled back by a few inches rather than sitting up straight again. She sighed.

“After this morning, I decided that, if that ever happened again, falling asleep and waking up here, like that, I would want to have something on my face when I wake up so I don’t look like a zombie.”

“Stella, you are beautiful, truly. I saw you this morning and what I saw was a beautiful young woman, not a zombie.” She could feel herself blushing.

“You might want to stop with the compliments before I get any ideas.” The most she could manage was a weak attempt at humor.

“What do you mean?” 

“Just, what we talked about this morning. Like, I’m literally on your bed with your head on my bare thighs and you’re telling me how beautiful I was when I woke up in this bed with you this morning.” Realization dawned on his face and he blushed, sitting up to remove his head from her aforementioned thighs.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t-” He sighed. “It’s just that I feel comfortable around you and that makes it easy to forget myself.” Stella couldn’t take it anymore.

“Look, I’m gonna make this real easy for you. If you don’t want to fuck me, then stop saying shit that makes it sound like you do because, right now, you are really fucking with my head. Capiche?”

For a moment, he looked stricken by her words and she started to feel bad but, then, shock morphed into determination and, then, his lips were on hers. It was a bit rushed and messy, but it was also hot and sweet and, to her, perfect. He deepened the kiss and, as his hands started trailing over her body, she forced herself to pull back.

“Are you sure?” She knew that, even with all the progress he’d made, he was still in the process of mourning the loss of his wife and she didn’t want him to do something he wasn’t ready for that he would regret.

“Yes.” He cupped her cheek, looking straight into her eyes. “Stay with me tonight.”

With that, any remaining willpower she had crumbled and, then, the next thing she knew, she was on top of him, kissing him again, relishing in the heat of his touch. This would permanently change their relationship but Stella couldn’t honestly say that she minded at all. They would have to talk about it tomorrow, of course, but, for the moment, it was perfect and she could see all the wonderful possibilities of the future. After all, she had always considered herself an optimist, and she had an especially good feeling about this.


End file.
